Oral care products such as dentifrice and mouthrinse are routinely used by consumers as part of their oral care hygiene regimens. It is well known that oral care products can provide both therapeutic and cosmetic hygiene benefits to consumers. Therapeutic benefits include caries prevention which is typically delivered through the use of various fluoride salts; gingivitis prevention by the use of an antimicrobial agent such as triclosan, stannous fluoride, or essential oils; or hypersensitivity control through the use of ingredients such as strontium chloride or potassium nitrate. Cosmetic benefits provided by oral care products include the control of plaque and calculus formation, removal and prevention of tooth stain, tooth whitening, breath freshening, and overall improvements in mouth feel impression which can be broadly characterized as mouth feel aesthetics. Calculus and plaque along with behavioral and environmental factors lead to formation of dental stains, significantly affecting the aesthetic appearance of teeth. Behavioral and environmental factors that contribute to teeth staining propensity include regular use of coffee, tea, cola or tobacco products, and also the use of certain oral products containing ingredients that promote staining, such as cationic antimicrobials and metal salts.
Thus daily oral care at home requires products with multiple ingredients working by different mechanisms to provide the complete range of therapeutic and aesthetic benefits, including anticaries, antimicrobial, antigingivitis, antiplaque and anticalculus as well as antiodor, mouth refreshment, stain removal, stain control and tooth whitening. In order for oral care products for daily use such as dentifrice and rinses to provide complete oral care it is necessary to combine actives and additives, many of which have the disadvantage of causing negative aesthetics during use, in particular unpleasant taste and sensations and stain promotion. The unpleasant taste and mouth sensations have been described as having one or more of bitter, metallic, astringent, salty, numbing, stinging, burning, prickling, and evens irritating aspects. Typical ingredients for oral care use that are associated with these aesthetic negatives include antimicrobial agents such as cetyl pyridinium chloride, chlorhexidine, stannous and zinc salts; tooth bleaching agents such as peroxides; antitartar agents such as pyrophosphate, tripolyphosphate and hexametaphosphate; and excipients such as baking soda and surfactants. To mitigate the aesthetic negatives from these ingredients, oral care products are typically formulated with flavoring agents and sweeteners to taste as good as possible and be consumer acceptable.
Although there have been many advances in oral care product formulations in recent years, there is still a need for improved products, particularly peroxide containing products with improved aesthetics and taste. Flavoring peroxide containing products' presents significant challenges for the formulator because the unpleasant taste and sensations derived from peroxide are difficult to mask and because many traditional flavor components are not sufficiently stable in the presence of peroxide. The present invention provides an improved flavor system comprising selected traditional flavor components combined with a mixture of menthol with at least one other coolant. The improved flavor system effectively masks the unpleasant taste and sensations derived from peroxide and provide a refreshing taste and sensation preferred by consumers.